Nine years after they brought the world the critically acclaimed brain-teasers Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are set to reunite, reports say.

The pair are planning a new satirical film, Deadline reports, an as yet untitled project centring on a group of world leaders who meet regularly to decide the nature of global events. The group's power extends to all arenas, from the setting of oil prices to the outcome of wars.

Kaufman, who wrote Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, which Jonze directed, made his own first foray into directing in 2008 with Synecdoche New York, his portrait of a man who attempts to dramatise his own life via a preposterously ambitious theatre project. Jonze, meanwhile, has been directing the children's fantasy Where the Wild Things Are and producing the recent gross-out movie, Jackass 3D.

It is not clear whether the pair will return to their erstwhile roles on the new project. Deadline reports that the duo are negotiating with film company Annapurna Pictures to bring their idea to the big screen.

Jonze and Kaufman have always approached their joint projects in a full collaborative spirit, while Kaufman has also worked closely with French film-maker Michel Gondry. Kaufman likes to be involved in his films throughout the production process, thanks in part to difficult past experiences: an attempt to partner with George Clooney on the 2002 spy film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind led to recriminations after the actor-turned-director rewrote Kaufman's screenplay without consultation.

"The usual thing for a writer is to deliver a script and then disappear," Kaufman told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2004. "That's not for me. I want to be involved from beginning to end. And these directors know that, and respect it."

Kaufman is still looking to continue his own career as a director, however. He aims to adapt his own screenplay for the project Frank Or Francis, the recursive tale of a film director and the online blogger who becomes his nemesis. Sony is currently guiding the film towards production, with Meryl Streep among those said to be interested in starring.